“Vision Making”

Abstract
This article explores methodological approaches to ecological transition-oriented conceptual frameworks and operational protocols for vision-making. In particular, it tries to answer one question: Which specific features should the process of Vision-making have when applied to a cross-boarder region which is both rich in natural assets as deprived of urban development oriented infrastructures ? To answer reference is made to a cross- disciplinary frame of references, from the fields of Environmental philosophy, geographic economy and planning. This choice is based upon the need for strategic thought and anticipatory visioning to base assumptions upon an holistic frame of reference, convening those disciplines that inform our understanding of the urban and environmental phenomena.
Context of the research
This article is the outcome of a research process initiated by an expedition conducted in November 2023. The focus of the exploration was the geographical area of Lake Ohrid - UNESCO World Heritage Site and part of EU’s Natura 2000 protected areas network. The expedition provided a first-hand, intimate connection to a geographic area which can be considered an “Earth’s Witness territory”, given its preservation state and its defining features: an extreme landscape, one of the world’s oldest and deepest lakes, with a maximum depth of 288 meters, an average depth of 155 meters, and a surface area of 358 square kilometres, its inland ecosystem is a unique biodiversity hotspot, with over 200 endemic species. The research involved a collective geographical inquiry, during which information and visual documentation of the area’s landscape systems and ecosystem components were gathered. Additionally, interviews were conducted with local institutional representatives and experts from Macedonia, Greece, and Albania, providing insights into the ongoing socio-economic and environmental dynamics.
Method and goals
This article dwells upon research and literature reviews that dealt with Urban-oriented visioning in EU urban contexts and North America, as well as on contextual knowledge gathered during the research-by-design, in situ phase of the inquiry, and on the authors’ previous Vision-making experiences in cross-border regions characterized by extreme environmental conditions and social inclusion issues [1], [2]. The article, moving off the beaten track of Growth- oriented Planning, explores the emergent conditions a Visioning process should address—and embody when dealing with the future of naturalistic contexts. Promoting an evolutionary, cooperative and adaptative transformation of territories. I.e., a process of gradual deepening and strengthening of co-evolutive relations between living communities and their territory that is based on the “absorptive capacity” (C. Garner, D. J. Cohen & D. A. Levinthal) of the local natural and social systems and not on the exogenous application of economic boosters.
The article is structured in two parts :
(1) The introduction presents the notion of Vision Making, its relation to the Planning discipline and the contraints imposed by cross-boarder contexts dominated by natural assets. (2) The notes for Vision-Making address various aspects of the epistemic and methodological transition in planning practices. Part 2 is articulated in a general framework - illustrating the operational transition from the dominance of “The project paradigm”, towards a “Care oriented process”; followed by thematic Protocols for the enactment of a Vision Making process.